Brooklyn

17 October 2013

I spent last week in Brooklyn. It was my first time being there, and as a Portlander, I had heard how similar the two are time and again. I went for work meetings, finally met my coworkers (hooray!), and attended Brooklyn Beta with the horde of webbish people in a large hangar on Friday.

What did I enjoy most about the week? By far it was being in the same room as my coworkers and having time to laugh, eat, drink, and just shoot the shit together. Lest you think that’s all we did, we did work and work hard for the two days we had together. Having started this job by just turning on a computer, joining Campfire, and then joining a Google Hangout, it was great to see faces clearly as we did planning and talking about various topics.

But what about Brooklyn? It truly is a lot like Portland. After walking around for a week there are differences, but there are many similarities. I heard more foreign languages as I rode the subway, the place is denser, it has a lot more restaurants, but the people walking around would have fit right in to my neighborhood. So I felt at home in many ways. Also, if you ever get to Brooklyn, the everything croissant at Smith Canteen and the lobster roll at Littleneck are must stops.

As for Brooklyn Beta, for me that conference was all about the people. If you have ever been, you know that it is quite different from a lot of other conferences out there, which is what I loved about it. No wifi, so I was really present in the room. No schedule, so I just sat and waited to see who would be speaking, and I enjoyed the surprises and the talks. The three days at Beta were all about meeting people. So many folks that I admire from afar were there and I got to chat with them during the long breaks. This webbish community is truly great and I feel really lucky to be a part of it.

I also feel really lucky to work with the team at Editorially. Last week only made me more grateful and more excited about this job and seeing where we go together as we iterate on the app.